Let them go

By Frida Mendoza

"I don't want to leave here, I don't want to leave here, let them go, let them go..." - Bad Bunny, 2022.

When in September 2022 Bad Bunny released the videoclip-documentary of the song El Apagón, as a single from the album Un verano sin ti, I remember that we started talking on social networks about the concept of Perreodismo because it denounced what gentrification, expropriation and extraction of natural areas were doing in Puerto Rico. In my opinion, the catchiest part of the whole song is the one sung by Gabriela, his ex-girlfriend: "que se vayan ellos, que se vayan ellos" (let them go, let them go).

Talking about gentrification has become more and more on our agendas, either because of a trending topic on social networks, a demonstration or because we are experiencing it ourselves.

Just a few days ago, a demonstration in Oaxaca caused a stir: inhabitants of the capital city protested against the gentrification of their city, the rise in rents and the lack of regulation of both rents and hosting platforms such as AirBnb. It was the first of its kind and, once again, Oaxacans made the walls speak with different messages against dispossession.